SRS To Increase Funding For Domestic Violence Victims

Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services Secretary Phyllis Gilmore announced Thursday that the agency will offer $2 million in grants directly to the state’s community domestic violence centers to fund the services they provide to clients of SRS’ Temporary Assistance to Need Families (TANF) program who have been victims of domestic violence.

This will be an effective increase of $600,000 for the local programs.

“Funding domestic violence programs directly through the community providers will allow us to deliver services and support straight to the victims,” Secretary Gilmore said. “In addition to increased funding, the community programs will have more flexibility and be able to better tailor their programs to individual needs.”

The grants will go into effect July 1, which marks the beginning of the state’s fiscal year.

The community programs provide support and a safe haven for victims of sexual and domestic violence, focusing primarily on women and children. They deliver direct services, such as counseling, victim advocacy and prevention and public awareness campaigns.

The Kansas Coalition against Sexual and Domestic Violence (KCSDV) decided to withdraw its bid to oversee case management for the local providers this week. SRS’s current $1.7 million contract with KCSDV will expire June 30.

“We are not surprised that KCSDV is backing away from providing services for the approximately 450 TANF clients in the domestic violence program,” the Secretary said. “KCSDV had been struggling to meet our new accountability standards for several months.”

“We tried to work with them, but in the end the bid that KCSDV submitted did not meet even the minimum performance standards set in the request for bid, and they were the only bidder,” Secretary Gilmore said. “As a result of their withdrawal, we have decided to take the program in house, manage it ourselves and provide direct funding to the community programs,” she said.

“We are working to get this funding in place to provide to local programs so these services will continue to be supplied without disruption,” the Secretary said. “We are also reaching out to the tribal groups that, in the past, have not been included in the program.”